The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has a huge 18.2 GB file size - that's bigger than any other first-party Switch game

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom screenshot
(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's file size has been revealed, and it's a hefty 18.2GB - making it the biggest first-party Nintendo Switch release to date. 

As reported by IGN, the file size for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been revealed on the Nintendo US store. According to the store listing, the Breath of the Wild sequel will require 18.2GB upon its release. This is obviously still fairly small when you take into consideration other AAA titles on the likes of the PS5 or PC, but for a Nintendo Switch game, it's pretty big. 

To put that into perspective, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild only requires 14.4GB of space, with other recent Nintendo releases like Bayonetta 3 needing 16GB, Fire Emblem: Engage taking up 13.4GB, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet only needing 7GB. 

This large file size almost makes the $70 price tag for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom a little more understandable. Don't worry though, Nintendo isn't planning on charging this amount for every new game it releases as it has said pricing is decided on a "case-by-case" basis. 

In case you missed it, earlier this week Nintendo hosted its now regular February Nintendo Direct in which we got more information about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as well as other announcements such as Pikmin 4's release date, the Splatoon 3 expansion pass, the official GameBoy and GBA Switch emulator, and much more. 

Focusing on the upcoming Zelda game, during the presentation we got our first look at the Tears of the Kingdom collector's edition, which has already become very difficult to track down, as well as a brand new Link Amiibo - which is due to release on the same day as the game on May 12, 2023. We also got to see Link's car for the first time in the new trailer, which very quickly got a lot of BanjoKazooie comparisons

Looking to secure your copy of the upcoming sequel? Take a look at our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-order guide.

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.